I am doing bookkeeping for a client who has a lot of Paypal transactions. He has a lot of recurring payments into his account from people that subscribe to his website. I have found that several times a month there is a transaction which is showing as complete but the balance on the statement does not increase. It's adding up to several hundred pounds over the year so it's not just a few transactions. Has anyone else come across this? I can't see any reason why the balance should not increase, there are no refunds or abnormal transactions anywhere near them on the statement. Before I contact the client and ask them to ask Paypal I thought I'd see if anyone else has seen this as surely it can't be right!
If you haven't already, I would ask the client for a download of the Paypal transactions so you can see all of them - that may shed some light on it as when I reconcile one of my clients Paypal accounts each month there are numerous ones at various stages which don't get included in the balance.
I have downloaded the list of transactions for the year with the balance on the right hand side. These are transactions which say "completed" the same as all the other ones but the balance on the right remains the same as the previous transaction for these few. If I leave them out the account reconciles at the end of the year/month/week whatever time period I use. If I include them it doesn't. The balance is next to each transaction and goes up on all the other transactions but stays the same as the previous row on these ones. It's all very strange. They are recurring payments so there's no reason why they wouldn't have cleared.
Are these all in GBP? The only thing that I can think is if you are possibly looking at the currency transactions which won't impact the account until they are translated into sterling. It's always hard to try and work it out without seeing the figures so apologies if I'm making you hit your head on the desk in frustruation !
He has separate balances for the USD and GBP accounts so they are separate. The statement does have all the transactions of both currencies in date order. Most of them are USD and then it converts money to GBP as and when he pays for something in pounds. There is a list of transactions in USD from maybe 20 or 30 people in a row for the same amount. Most of them credit the balance, it's just a few that don't. It's bizarre.
Can you tell me why the fees for transactions of the same amount are different each time?!
The only thing that should cause them to be different is that the fees will be calculated on the local currency amount (USD) so would then be different when they are translated in to GBP each day as the rate changes.
Do you reconcile the transactions to the merchants statement? I use that with the download to establish what transactions make up each balance - all other transactions are either currency or get reversed in different periods so don't get included.
They aren't converted into GBP. He has a USD account and a GBP account. So there is a balance in USD and another balance in GBP. The fees on the GBP transactions aren't always the same either. I'm not a big fan of Paypal!
They aren't converted into GBP. He has a USD account and a GBP account. So there is a balance in USD and another balance in GBP. The fees on the GBP transactions aren't always the same either. I'm not a big fan of Paypal!
I'm with you there, it can be a real nuisance to reconcile. I've taken to running daily summaries, for the previous day and posting them instead of posting each transaction, in and out and trying to reconcile everything.
I added stuff up page at a time and entered that but because of these stupid transactions I had to reconcile it a page at a time which worked out every 2 or 3 days! I had a pile of paper an inch thick so it took me some time. I've told him we need to do things monthly from now on rather than annually as his business is growing and it's going to get worse.
I hate Paypal for this. Amazon keeps the accounts separate, and pays out separately, whereas paypal basically shows you an excel report that shows all the accounts lumped together. I usually re-sort the paypal excel file into Type and then split it all up.
I couldn't even get it into Excel. I was only offered the last 45 days for downloading. I had to print the whole lot out. One ink cartridge gone. I downloaded it all last year and sorted like you said but I couldn't get a report this year. Do you know of one that goes back more than a year?
I usually use this monthly summary and print out GBP, USD and Euro statements, then use the spreadsheets and in house links to help me tie it all up. Nightmare though sometimes, especially when USD comes in and then is used to pay USD items or worse, transferred to Euro! If GBP is transferred, you can use that for your exchange rate, otherwise google the average conversion rate for that month.
This guy tranfers money from his USD and GBP to AUD and EUR but I'm using the multicurrency bit in Quickbooks so it's not a problem. I spoke to him today. He said the payments just didn't arrive. They are recurring payments which have been set up but are not being actioned. Maybe Paypal shouldn't list them as "Completed" then! I also asked him if he knew why the fees change and he said there are different rates for different countries so all customers in the same country should have the same fee. I'm not convinced...
Ive taken on someone recently who has a paypal account and does lots of sales through eBAY, who only sent me half the info, told me they were business sales so I included them in his VAT return only to be told by his wife they were personal sales just a day prior to their first VAT inspection. I had to attend the VAT inspection as they have NO clue, then was asked why I had billed them that month and wanting a full breakdown for each invoice I give them. Never mind that I told them I charge per hour and I dont do VAT inspections for free! Well ok I was a lot politer than that! They are already my least favourite customer already, they only give me stuff when I drag it out of them (IF Im lucky!!), now Im hearing all you guys have said about Paypal so Im seriously thinking of dumping and running. But Im a bit guilt tripped as I was recommended to them by another customer!
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
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